For our penultimate day, we wanted to explore some of the places around Mount Rushmore before heading to our final overnight stop in Sioux Falls. 

We had read a number of reviews of Mount Rushmore itself, some very positive (especially espousing the feelings of patriotism that are felt by Americans as they observe the 60' carvings of presidents' heads in the mountainside) and some rather negative, talking about the commercialism and "touristy" nature of the park. We had limited time as we had to make it to Sioux Falls and I also wanted to visit a winery in Hill City, so we opted to go to Crazy Horse rather than Mount Rushmore. And we were very pleased that we did.

On the way there, I went in to what I thought was a winery, Stone Faces in Hill City. It turns out that this is not really a winery  per se, but only a tasting room for another winery, Valiant Vineyards that is in Vermillion, SD, some 300 miles further east. The girl in the tasting room explained that the winemaker there, Eldon Nygaard was responsible for writing the law (The South Dakota Farm Winery Act) back in 1996 and established the first Farm Winery in the state there. Rather than taste the wines in Hill City, and knowing we were heading towards Sioux Falls, I said we would go there and visit. Unfortunately, I miscalculated the time we had available to fit everything in, and we never did make it to Valiant Vineyards, but I do plan to get hold of a bottle of their wine and taste it.

We headed to Crazy Horse in weather that was still very iffy. Mist and drizzle persisted as we drove through the Black Hills, but gradually it improved and the sun came out. 

Ginnie has a particular interest in Native American culture, having written her first novel set in the Hopi and Navajo Lands of Arizona, so we were pleased to be able to see this monument, started by a white man and his family and funded entirely by private funds, to try to right some of the wrongs of the past in the way that the American Indians were treated.  

In comparison to the Presidential stone faces of Mount Rushmore, the scale of Crazy Horse is colossal. It is the world's largest mountain carving. The face of the sculpture is completed and the wife, Ruth, and children of the sculptor, Korczak Ziolkowski who started the carving in 1948 and died in 1982, are continuing the project. We were able to take Hopi into the visitor center as long as we held him. We went in to the theater to see the orientation video and scared the poor little guy half to death. He hates guns, bangs and explosions and the video shows in graphic detail how the sculpture is made by using a combination of high explosives to blow away huge chunks of the mountain, and heavy machinery.

The project is incredible and you really have to see it to understand the scale. The visitor center is fascinating also and we spent a long time there.

As we left Crazy Horse, we headed briefly through Rapid City and visited another winery, Prairie Berry, whose family have been making fruit, honey and berry wines in South Dakota since 1876. The Vojta Family came to South Dakota from Moravia and now the wines are being made by 5th Generation, Sandi Jojta. Many of the wines are fruit based (they are famous for a fun little number called Red Ass, which is made from rhubarb!) but I tried a few of the grape wines that were interesting and better than I expected. La Crescent 2009 was a semi-dry (or semi sweet depending on which way you look at it) white wine made from native grapes grown in South Dakota. The blush, called Pink Slip was mostly white Zinfandel (!) but the red Sand Creek was very good. Made with a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and what they call River Grapes, this had fullness, a fine bouquet and hints of the oak in which it had been aged. At $21 a bottle, this is serious wine and was an unexpected pleasure from a state that in not perhaps noted for its winemaking prowess.

Our journey continued along Interstate 90 and we arrived late at out final hotel, a very nice Homewood Suites in Sioux City where we were able to order a good steak for delivery to the room. We opened a bottle of wine and tried to take in the fact the the next day would be the last one of our trip and that we would soon be back in Wisconsin.

Well the weather may have been wonderful for our day in Yellowstone, but the following day (Thursday) we made up for it.

Our journey started from Cody, Wyoming (Buffalo Bill Land) and we had planned to make it to Hill City, South Dakota the next day, hopefully to visit a winery and maybe Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse and Custer. We knew it was a long way but we were rather sleep-deprived and had a few things to do before leaving Cody, including picking up a prescription from Walgreens (this is a good trick to know if you are traveling for a long time. If you use Walgreens, you can have your prescription filled at any one of them in the country. Everything was done online and the drugs were ready for pickup just as if we had been in Sheboygan).  I also needed to get a new digital downloader for our cameras. The one I had brought with me managed to break two memory cards and I couldn't risk losing the images. Walgreens obliged once again!

It was cold and drizzling when we left and as we headed off on route 14, the Bighorn Scenic Byway, the rain became heavier. There were some short periods of breaks in the clouds and I marveled at the changes in geology as we progressed along the windy roads.

As this was the first time for either of us in this part of the country, we weren't entirely aware of the topography. I thought that as we headed east, the landscape would turn flatter and we would soon be in the pains. What I had not realized was that we had to navigate a pretty big mountain range first, and as we started to climb, the rain came down more and more heavily. I watched the temperature drop to the low 40s and commented that it may actually be snowing higher up. But the "Road Closed Ahead When Flashing" sign was not flashing which meant the road was open and, I thought, must be OK.

Rain turned to sleet. Sleet turned to snow. My laid back approach to the windy roads turned a little more cautious. One of the biggest problems was the brightness of the snow. I lowered the sun visor to help differentiate the contours of the road, but fog was all around and everything was basically white. There were no other cars on the road, or so it seemed, and there was no cell phone access, but there was also no alternative. We had to get over the mountain and the pass was the only route. 

On we went and the snow came down heavily as the temperature dropped to 30 degrees. We reached the summit which was 9,300' - not quite as high as Leadville, CO where we stayed the first week of our trip, but still pretty high. and the snow was blowing sideways. A snowplow appeared coming in the opposite direction and I decided to move to the other side of the road to drive in the cleared tracks. Of course i had to be aware of oncoming traffic which was few and far between, but when it came, it was shrouded in fog and I had to cross the thickest snow in the center of the road to get back on the right side. It felt dangerous and it was, so I opted to drive back on the the fresh snow most of the time, really slowly, and plow through. Although I wished that I still had my Land Rover, the RAV 4 did an admirable job. Only on a couple of occasions did the ABS brakes shudder as I lost a little traction, but we made it to the top. The drop down was eleven miles of 8% gradient. I put the car in 2nd (low) gear and kept my foot away from the brake as much as possible. Those eleven miles took almost an hour and seemed interminable. Finally the snow turned back to sleet and then to rain and I breathed a sigh of relief as Ginnie massaged my shoulders, which were tense from the almost three hours of intense concentration. My right thigh also ached and mentally I was exhausted. Although I never feared for our lives, I was certainly concerned as this was probably the worst conditions I have ever driven in, and certainly the longest sustained white-out conditions I have experienced. Although we couldn't see it, I knew there were sheer drops off the side of the road. I was pleased that there were barriers almost the whole way down and thankful for the Wyoming taxpayers who presumably footed the bill to install them! Through this whole episode, Hopi was uncharacteristically nervous and anxious, panting and trembling even before the white-out started. I think he could sense the danger ahead, or sense our concern. Doggies are remarkably perceptive!

As a result of this slow start to the day, we didn't make it as far as Hill City, SD and stopped at a pretty crummy Holiday Inn (why are they less good than the cheaper Holiday Inn Express?) for the night. Ironically, there was a Culver's next door. I was grateful to my friend Craig Culver for having the foresight to build a restaurant right there, and we filled our stomachs with butter burgers and fell into bed, too exhausted to blog.

Not may photos today but the following give an idea of the mountain pass conditions. This was certainly a day on the trip that we will remember and eventually we will look back on it fondly, as we do on every day. The main thing is that we are safe!

I have decided that I need a change of career. I want to become a weatherman. It is the only job I know where you can be spectacularly wrong and there are absolutely no consequences. That being said, I am pleased when they get the forecast wrong and it turns out to be much better weather than they predicted. That is exactly what happened yesterday for our excursion into Yellowstone Park, a trip that I had been looking forward to for weeks.

So despite predictions of snow, rain and cloud, we had perfect sunshine with interesting cloud formations for the entire day. And the day was AMAZING!

We had stayed in Gardiner the night before and made a relatively early start, at least for us, having packed a lunch and got the car washed. Gardiner is right at the north entrance and we passed under the Roosevelt arch, paid our $25 and headed south into the park. First stop was Mammoth Hot Springs. We couldn't take Hopi on any of the boardwalks and so I made a mini excursion myself as Ginnie watched the bubbling cauldrons from the car. The smell of sulphur is almost overpowering but the colors of the lava against the blue sky with the resulting steam from the boiling water that is erupting from the bowels of the earth are amazing. 

On we drove towards Old Faithful. Some of the scenery on the way was beautiful and some of it was frankly quite unremarkable. There are areas that have been ravaged by wildfires that are not pretty and some boring areas with just lots of pine trees. But the beautiful areas, along the rivers and across valleys are simply stunning.  We stopped for lunch by the Yellowstone River and then headed to Old Faithful. We managed to time it perfectly, able to use restrooms and do a little shopping before the eruption which is very impressive. We have not been able to visit any Montana Wineries (the few that exist were not on our route without a very long detour) but I was able to purchase a bottle in the Old Faithful Store that was made at Ten Spoons Winery near Missoula that I will sample and report back on. 

Old Faithful did her thing and we headed on. We knew that the East Entrance to the park was closed which would have been our best route to Cody Wyoming, so we had to make a detour and head back north and out of the North east Entrance. It turns out that it was fortuitous that this was the case, as while we were on the northbound road, we saw stopped cars and a Park Ranger directing folks. Yes, there was a grizzly bear less than 100 yards away. Excited, we pulled in and joined the throng. Ginnie had the binoculars and I had the 70-200mm zoom already on the camera as I had been using it to photograph many other amazing features of the park earlier, including geysers and bubbling mud holes near the Yelowstone Lake which is still completely frozen over.

With the long lens, I was able to see the bear clearly. She was completely undeterred by the audience but the ranger was being cautious. They can run at 35 mph and could be with us very quickly if she wanted to. But he has worked with these bears for over ten years and knows the signs. After gobbling at whatever she could find in the mud between snow banks, the sow finally ambled away, and the crowd left with huge smiles on our faces.

We also saw a lot of bison some with their young, an elk having a wander in the the river, some beautiful birds and the telltale signs of other bears. Apparently there was a coyote hiding behind a restroom too, and Ginnie was warned not to take Hopi near there!

As we left the park, we had a rather long drive to Cody, but the views were just as impressive as in the park. We arrived late and tired at our Cody hotel (The Cody), picked up a pizza, downloaded hundreds of photos and went to bed at 1:00am! Too late to do a blog, but it was an incredible day that will live in our memories and on our computer screens for a long time!

We left our Bitterroot Vally cabin and headed south, then east, then north and then east again. Our destination was Gardiner, Montana, near the north entrance to Yellowstone National Park. The journey was quite simply breathtaking in its beauty. We followed the Bitterroot River and then headed into one of the many high plains of Montana, past battlefields ringed with high, snow-capped mountains where cowboys and Indians fought in yesteryear. It is hard to imagine that kind of carnage and violence in a landscape that it so peaceful and serene.  As I white man, although I am not from USA and had no part in that awful period of history, I felt somehow ashamed that it should ever have occurred and that the Hollywood versions of Westerns have been so romanticized, even in UK.

The journey today should have taken about five hours but we didn’t rush, as I couldn’t resist stopping frequently to take photographs. There are no wineries in this area and so photography took over as my primary consideration and method of remembering the area. The weather was perfect. There was sunshine, shadow, fluffy clouds, plains, mountains, fences, cows and rivers that just cried out for us to stop and record them on digital sensors.

This was a day when I brought out the big boy – the 70-200mm zoom that weighs a ton but is such a pleasure to use on my Nikon 300. Interestingly, up until now, I have used my SLR less than I had expected, relying to a large extent on my smaller Lumix GF1 which has a fixed focus f1.7 lens that is pin sharp and super fast. It is amazing how sometimes stripping things down to the basics frees you to be more creative. To zoom in and out with that camera, I have to use my feet and move back and forth, or alternatively I can manipulate the image on the computer later. Anyway, enough of the techy stuff; the important thing is that I tried my best to record some of the scenes on the cameras as much as anything to remind myself that nature is so immense, so awesome that no matter what equipment you have, recording it in two dimensions does not do it justice.

Part of our journey took us on Interstate 15 and Interstate 90 and we crossed the Continental Divide twice. These stretches of highway have to be some of the most beautiful in USA and there was hardly anyone on them. The lack of commercialization is so refreshing in these areas.

Our hotel is a Best Western Plus and our very reasonably priced room overlooks the Yellowstone River. We had dinner in the Cowboy Grill (barbecue pork and bottles of Bud Lite!) and I am writing this as the sound of the gushing river can be heard outside our window. Tomorrow we will go into the park and see what we can, hopefully ending up in Cody on the east side. The weather forecast is not good (rain and snow) and we are trying to get confirmation that the road to Cody is open. We fleetingly saw a sign on the way in that suggested it may be closed and they have also had avalanches on some roads, so tomorrow could be another adventure!

The rest of the day was one of chilling and relaxing. We discovered that there is a Relais et Chateaux property about five miles up the road from us at our Montana cabin. It is an upscale place called Triple Creek ranch where they have 26,000 acres of ranch land, about 20 or so cabins and a lodge with a restaurant. Never wanting to give up an opportunity to see potential competitors (we also visited Bandon Dunes while we were in Oregon) we booked for lunch. 

Lunch was a fixed price of $28 including dessert and soft drinks - pricey but not too bad for a place like this. There was only one other couple in the dining room and our waitress was bubbly and efficient. The menu was interesting but included basics like "design your own sandwiches", a burger and some salads. There was also a chili that was described as "famous" and a squab dish with lentils and vegetable slaw. Ginnie was conservative and ordered a sandwich and I had the chili and squab, bth of which were delicious.

The waitress brought us the bill and didn't offer dessert, and being that it was a fixed price menu and I kind of wanted my money's worth, I asked about them. She said there was a chocolate and raspberry cheesecake and we agreed to have one. It was good, but enrobed in white chocolate so hard that it made it difficult to cut and eat. However, overall the meal was very good and the property is delightful. They are having a vintners event this coming weekend with Chateau Montelena wines. We held a winemakers dinner at Riverbend last year and the winemaker, Beau Barrett (the star of the movie Bottle Shock) came. I asked if beau was coming, and he isn't. Although I am sure it will be a great weekend regardless, I felt a touch of pride knowing that we managed to persuade him to attend and they didn't ;)

The rest of the afternoon was just relaxing at the cabin, catching up on blogs and LinkedIn networking, applying for a couple of jobs online, planning the next few days (and our planning for the house move and sale) and drinking wine. 

We will leave this cabin reluctantly, but Yellowstone awaits, where apparently it is snowing and in the 30s!!

Following our inauspicious stay in Moses Lake, Washington, we had a fairly short drive to Walla Walla. I had been looking forward to visiting this area for a long time as it is a very up and coming wine region and one that has been drawing international attention for a number of years now. Prize winning wines and winemakers have hailed from the area and press has been drawing attention to it. The Walla Walla Wine Alliance has been doing a good job of promoting the region, which actually extends across two states, Washington and Oregon.

As has been our pattern throughout the trip, we did not make reservations in advance but it was a good thing that we decided to book something before leaving Moses Lake as Walla Walla was extremely busy this weekend and we were fortunate to get the last room at a Holiday Inn Express.

The landscape became more attractive as we left the Columbia Basin, but I have to admit to not finding the area as pretty as many other wine country regions. Perhaps it was the contrast to the Okanagan but it does not compare in natural beauty to there or Califonia. We have been fortunate to visit many beautiful areas during this trip and I suppose it is natural to make comparisons, but we were a little disappointed. When we think about it, however, it is just because of the geology. The area has the world’s largest lava flows, and that, combined with glacial flood deposits and a very favorable climate, contribute to great grape growing conditions.

Wineries began to appear along Highway 12 as we approached the town of Walla Walla. Vineyards, however, seemed conspicuous by their absence and it seems that many wineries in the area buy wines from half a dozen vineyards in the region and that the Estate Wineries (those who grow their own grapes) are relatively few.

We stopped at Reininger along the way. They buy their fruit from several of the better vineyards including Pepper Bridge, Seven Hills and Spring Valley as well as from Ash Hollow Vineyard that they bought with some partners back in 1999. Their portfolio includes two labels, Reininger and Helix by Reininger and they make a wide range of wines from Chardonnay to Syrah, Malbec , Carmenère and Cabernet Sauvignon. Although my dislike of wine ratings is well known, Wine Spectator and Robert Parker have rated many of their wines in the 90s. What this really means is that they are very good, very well made and with a focus on the varietal that is true and straight. I tasted the 2007 Carmenère, a grape that was originally in the Bordeaux blend but that has found a new home in Chile where they make some superb examples alongside Malbec. The Reininger offering made with grapes from the Seven Hills Vineyard was full of red, strawberry fruit that also has a depth of flavor more reminiscent of blackcurrants and a peppery note that was enchanting.

After checking into the hotel (early for once) we headed out to find some more wineries. I was attracted to one, Beresan that is  a small producer of handcrafted wines, owned and operated by Tom Waliser and his family. They have 18 acres of estate vineyards and produce high quality examples of cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Syrah and Merlot in addition to a fine Semillon. However, I was most interested in the their Carmanère,  as they were the first to produce a wine from that grape in the Walla Walla Valley. Having tasted the Reininger example earlier it was good to compare the two. They both share the characteristics of the grape but are completely different profiles with the Beresan being a little more powerful and aromatic, but ironically with less tannin. The pepperiness was still evident and it is a beautifully made wine by a grower with a great local reputation.

As time was going on, we headed to the newest winery in the region, Castillo Feliciana, set in a beautiful location, surrounded by wines and fields of grain with a tasting room inspired by Southern Spanish Andalucía architecture. The owners are Sam and Deborah Castillo. Feliciana was Deborah’s great aunt and she showed me a photo of her. Deborah’s interest in wine was sparked by memories of going into her great aunt’s purse in search of gum, and being reminded of the smell of leather, roses (from her perfume), slight mustiness and the smell of the gum. The name of the winery means “Castle of Happiess” and that was certainly the feeling I got when visiting.

Sam is a Seattle dentist and they made the decision to go into the wine making business right at the wrong time, as the economy dived in late 2008. Sam had hoped to sell the dental practice but that fell through. Consequently, all funding for he winery has come from their personal savings so this is a huge leap of faith that they hope to hand on to future generations. Retirement is not a slowing down for Sam and Deborah! However the wines are top quality and they certainly deserve to succeed. They have concentrated on Spanish and South American varieties and the Tempranillo is their signature wine. Very complex on the nose and palate, it has aromas of mint, spice and blackberries. The mouth-feel was delightful and the finish long and multidimensional. It would be a perfect accompaniment to tapas!

Feeling rather hungry after this, we headed to the town of Walla Walla and were delighted to find a winery, Sapolil Cellars, who also serve great bistro food and have an outdoor patio for Hopi. The weather was perfect, the house wine delicious and the food excellent. To top it off, a pianist played and the place filled with punters who were on wine trips and basically calling on every winery in town. Great atmosphere and a wonderful end to our Washington trip!

We left our Okanagan cottage but before heading south down highway 97, destination Walla Walla, Washington I wanted to visit a winery that was just to the north and east of us.

Seeya Later Ranch has a fun name and I had read that they had some incredible views and produced some pretty neat wines from their estate vineyards. The winery is only 5 kilometers from the main road but it is a windy and steep drive up a valley. When we arrived we were greeted by the friendly tasting room staff who were very knowledgable about the wines and allowed us to bring our pooch in (which is technically against the rules, but their logo is a dog and they raise money for the SPCA, so they are doggie tolerant!)

Ginnie enjoyed a tasting of their sparkling wine, a blend of Chardonnay and Riesling that was indeed interesting and got the day off on the right foot. I was particularly impressed with their Gewürztraminer, which is produced from the 65-acres of vines right outside the winery door. This is a LOT of acreage of Gewürztraminer and apparently one of the largest in North America.

After this little diversion we would pass through other regions of the Okanagan Valley as we headed south towards Washington and as the drive was fairly short, I wanted to visit a couple of other wineries in the Oliver and Osoyoos areas.

Silver Sage winery has the kind of small production that I would like to write and know more about. It was started by a Romanian family, the Manolas in 1996, originally making fruit wines and then graduating to grapes.  The winery is famous for a white Gewürztraminer wine that is actually fermented with sage plants to produce a semi-dry wine with a distinctive aroma of sage. This is not flavor that is imparted by the soil or the terroir but rather by adding the flavoring during the fermentation process. The lady in the tasting room was friendly as she explained it to me but did not offer a tasting which was a little odd, so I cannot vouch for the quality. It strikes me as more than a little strange and is certainly a unique, some might say criminal thing to be doing with wine. I hope to get hold of a bottle to taste and will report back, although I am not too hopeful that I will like it.

On the other hand, I adore Ice Wine and that made in the Niagara Peninsula of Ontario, Canada, has reached incredible heights of quality and can now be seen on some of the best restaurant wine lists in the world. I am particularly impressed with the house of Inniskillin and have listed their Ice Wines in several of the restaurant wine lists that I have run in the past. I have also visited their Niagara winery so I was interested to see what they are doing at their sister estate in Oliver, Okanagan.

This is a much smaller winery than the Ontario one and yet they make some fascinating wines, including Ice Wines. The window of opportunity to pick the frozen grapes is very small, and when the word goes out, everyone associated with the winery shows up at 2:00am to gather them. A few years ago this was on New Year’s Eve and everyone left their parties and headed to the tiny vineyard. The results are half bottles of incredibly sweet, thick, luscious dessert wines made from Riesling and Vidal grapes that rival those from Germany. They are low in alcohol (because the residual sugar is very high) and yet they still maintain enough acidity to prevent them from cloying. In Oliver, they also make a totally unique Ice Wine from the Spanish grape, Tempranillo (they also make a still Tempranillo that is very good).

I was indeed fascinated by this wine which is the only pink Ice Wine I have every seen or heard about. The pink color comes not from any contact of the juice with the skins, as the juice is gently pressed out of the still frozen grapes and is therefore not in contact with the skins at all. Rather, it comes from the ice crystals themselves which have become slightly colored on the skins of the grapes during the freezing and thawing process in the lead up to the harvest. Inniskillin makes but 250 6-pack cases of this wine, which sells for $99.99 per half bottle and are available only from the Oliver winery. I was fortunate to be able to taste this incredible wine and the flavor remained with me for about an hour as we headed out of Canada and crossed the border back into Washington at Osoyoos.

After the extraordinary beauty of the Okanagan Valley, we were a little disappointed as we drove further south in Washington. Although the Columbia Valley is certainly pretty, the area does not become true wine country again until further south.  Acres and acres of apple orchards predominate and you can see why Washington is so important to the fruit industry.

The lovely orchards gave way to the uninteresting area of the Columbia Basin and we decided to stop for the night in Moses Lake, ready for an early start the next day to go to Walla Walla.

We spent three nights at our Okanagan cottage and on the last full day there (Wednesday) we traveled up the valley to Kelowna, which is a largish town on the east shore of the lake.  There are no roads north of Naramata and so to get to Kelowna you drive on the west bank and cross a neat floating bridge at the north end of the lake.

My eye was drawn to a winery that shares my name, Beaumont Family Estates and felt that I just had to go visit it! The winery is owned by a couple from Beaumont, Edmonton and it is certified 100% organic. The wines are made by their daughter who is still only 23 but has been making wine for 8 vintages now. They have a wide selection and I was particularly impressed with their Gamay Noir rosé and the Pinot Gris. Rosé is popular in the area and this one is dry with a hint of residual sweetness but it is floral and refreshing. Production is small and the wines are only available in British Columbia but they were well made and of pretty decent quality. Prices are also good and it is worth a trip if you are in the area. They also have musicians play in the tasting room on occasions.

I was also fascinated by the St. Hubertus winery, a little south of the town. This is owned by two Swiss brothers, Andy and Leo Gebert who started growing grapes there in the mid 80s and then making wine in 1992. They have an interesting portfolio including a sparkling wine and a white made with the Chasselas grape that I have never seen outside of Swtizerland where it forms the basis of the white wine production of the cantons of Vaud and Valais on the steep slopes above Lake Geneva. I would say that the St Hubertus version is perhaps better than the original Swiss, in that it has more body and fruit. It is the classic fondue wine and also makes a dry, refreshing aperitif. Given the location of the winery and the similarities to Switzerland, I can see why the Gebert brothers came here.

There was a huge forest fire here in 2003 that destroyed over 200 homes and many acres of vines as well as the St. Hubertus winery. It has since been completely rebuilt and is a beautiful structure amongst extraordinarily beautiful scenery.

We enjoyed a Gray Monk Riesling with dinner in Penticton at a restaurant overlooking the lake and our day was complete. I am so excite about this region and feel I need to come back and spend a whole week just exploring the wineries. This was my own Okanagan aperitif!

There is something about the combination of lakes, mountains and vineyards that stirs me more than almost any other landscape on earth. Maybe it is because of the experiences I have had in Switzerland and Italy and memories of vacations on Lake Maggiore or the time I spend in Lausanne, overlooking Lake Geneva. Although I love Lake Michigan too, it is more like looking out over an ocean than a lake, it is so big. I like to be able to see mountains on the other side silhouetted against the sky as the sun disappears behind them and is replaced by thousands of lights reflecting off the surface of the water.

Lake Okanagan is the first place in North America that reminds me of the Swiss lakes,  On Tuesday we saw it in its full glory and I fell in love. We drove from our cottage just south of Penticton and headed up the east side of Lake Okanagan to the Naramata Bench, a wine growing area of great distinction. First port of call was Township 7 winery where I met with owner, Mike Raffan and winemaker Brad Cooper. Mike was originally a successful restaurateur who owned restaurants in Vancouver but since his early 20s had wanted to own a vineyard. He was finally able to purchase township 7 in 2006 and has created a boutique label with a sister winery in Langley. Brad, the winemaker, learned his trade at the local college and honed it with time in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand and Washington State. When I asked him about his style, predictably he says that he wants to create a style of wine that is true to the region and not try to emulate European or New World although in reality, he draws from both of those styles to create wines that are truly unique.

I had tasted the 2009 Sauvignon Blanc the day before at dinner and was remarkably impressed with it.  Full-on fruit with a gorgeous, Pouilly Fume-style nose that had bracing acidity yet balanced structure and a long finish showed that this was a wine of great character. On Tuesday they were bottling the 2010 and I tasted it right from the bottling line. This is from the same pedigree but evidently needs time to settle and "calm down" as at that point it seemed a tad too acidic. They, and everyone else in the valley had challenges in the last two vintages and 2011 is also very much behind where they would like to be because of cool, wet weather. 

The 2007 Merlot that I enjoyed later that day is also a very well made wine that again has influences from Right Bank and New World that provide a personality that is unique. Red fruits and a hint of pepper and spice, but not too much make it a perfect food wine and all of Township 7's portfolio is commendable. With prices in Canada being considerably more than the equivalent in USA, their wines are also good value. Owing to some complicated and archaic liquor laws, distribution is a challenge for all Canadian winemakers (a theme we heard repeated many times) and so you are unlikely to find the wine outside of British Columbia which is a shame. However, search it out if you visit as they are distinguished wines that deserve a wider audience.

Further along the Bench is Red Rooster, a winery that looks grander and is larger in scope than many of the other 100 wineries that dot the Okanagan landscape, but is actually still relatively small. The original Swiss owners, Beat and Prudence Mahrer who opened it in 1990 and produced their first vintage in 1997, now own Ruby Tuesday's next door (see below).  They recently sold Red Rooster to Andrew Peller and a young local winemaker, Karen Gillis is at the helm  producing some fine wines that have won international acclaim. The winery is quirky and features unusual art as well as having incredible views up the valley to the Okanagan Lake.